Black & White filter?

LittleMan

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I've been researching what filters I should use when photographing in B&W and haven't found much info on it...

First, know that I will be using film and do not want to/can not use photoshop in any way. I would like to know what filter to use to turn up the contrast and keep everything in the photo interesting.

I need to know what brand of filter is a quality brand, and what kind of filter/s I need... I looked around Adorama and there are more filters/kinds of filters there than I could ever look through in a life time... so I need to know what's good and what's bad.

Also, is there any price range that I should be looking at?
Like...
$10-$30 is crap...
$35-$65 is pretty good...
etc....
Is it that way for Filters?

There are a lot of questions I have.... so I'll just stop now and get some of these answered.
Thanks!
 
i dont really know about brands too much other than tiffen(always worked for me) but you cant go wrong with a set of filters such as :

yellow
red
orange

each will up the contrast in their own way, red being the strongest.
 
Depends on the quality you're looking for. I'm shopping around for BW filters now too and I don't know if I should get the top of the line filters or not. The price difference is huge.

On BH, a kit of 3 Tiffen filters costs 30 bucks. I'm pretty sure they're not multicoated at all.

On the other hand, a good B-W filter with coating is about 25-30 bucks alone.
 
yeah, as in the B+W brand. (i think it's B+W, not B-W.) that's a great brand for filters, but their stuff is expensive. as long as you dont shoot into the sun much, you can just buy a tiffen one. I'm thinking about buying a red filter.
 
LittleMan said:
I would like to know what filter to use to turn up the contrast and keep everything in the photo interesting.

Also, is there any price range that I should be looking at?
Like...
$10-$30 is crap...
$35-$65 is pretty good...
etc....
Is it that way for Filters?

Whether or not a photo is interesting doesn't have much to do with filters.

In general a red #25 increases contrast, but what you really need to look at is the color of the important subject matter and a color wheel (for light, not pigment). A red filter won't increase contrast in a scene of pink marbles on a red cloth, or green marbles on a green cloth, but it would increase contrast in a scene of red on green, or the other way around. A colored filter lets light that is the same color through as normal, while blocking colors from the other side of the color wheel.

A red filter blocks a lot of green and cyan, so photogs use them to increase contrast between bright flowers and green foliage or clouds and blue sky, etc... A red filter used with a portrait can make reddish freckles disappear, along with their lips. A green filter would emphasize freckles and lips, and possibly darken a ruddy complexion.

Just go with a well known brand that you can afford.
 
ksmattfish said:
A red filter used with a portrait can make reddish freckles disappear, along with their lips. A green filter would emphasize freckles and lips, and possibly darken a ruddy complexion.
:mrgreen:

I was shooting a girl after a swim in the pool.

What I found out, is that a red filter makes the green-blue veins really contrasty. It also removes the lips. So when I saw the print in the developer, I got chills.

She looked like a drowner. :meh:
 
DocFrankenstein said:
:mrgreen:

I was shooting a girl after a swim in the pool.

What I found out, is that a red filter makes the green-blue veins really contrasty. It also removes the lips. So when I saw the print in the developer, I got chills.

She looked like a drowner. :meh:

When I was taking photo classes in college I noticed that all the goth girls really loved their #25 red filters. A little higher contrast, a little extra zombie-ification... :lol:

I see the word "swarthy" often mentioned in articles/books in reference to how green filters affect caucasian skin tones. It always cracks me up for some reason. I just can't see telling a client that the reason I'm photographing him with a green filter is to make him look swarthy.
 
wow! thanks ksmattfish!
I now understand(basicly) how/why it all works! lol
right now I don't have the money for any filters... so I'll be getting some in the near future!

Thanks again for all your help everyone! :thumbup:

~Chris
 

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